75 Years of Pragmatic Idealism 1940 – 2015 Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions Photo courtesy of Antiochiana, Antioch College. Antioch Antiochiana, of courtesy Photo New Solutions Number 22 • Spring, 2016 CONTENTS Our Work – Susan Jennings 1 Power of Community Film 20 Philosophy of Community – Arthur Morgan 2 Passive House Revolution Film 21 Back to Yellow Springs – Scott Sanders 4 Current Program Areas of Focus 25 Fruits of Vision: 5 The Answer to Energy Poverty is Antioch Student Inspired – Ralph Keyes 5 Community Richness – Peter Bane 26 75 Years of Publications and Films 6 100 Year Plan – Jim Merkel 27 World War II Correspondence Course on Beyond Too Little Too Late – Peter Bane 28 Community – Stephanie Mills 7 Community Assessment Questions – Don Hollister 30 Mitraniketan in India – Lee Morgan 8 Life in Yellow Springs 31 Community Land Trust Pioneer – Emily Seibel 9 A Shared Adventure – Arthur Morgan 31 Ferment of the 1960’s Distilled – Don Hollister 11 Energy Navigators Program – Jonna Johnson 32 A Griscom Passion — Demurrage Economics Environmental Dashboard – Rose Hardesty 33 vs. Compound Interest – John Morgan 12 Tools for Transition – 2015 conference report 34 Jane Morgan Years and Conferences 1975 – 1997 14 Arthur Morgan Award 2015 to Stephanie Mills 36 Marianne MacQueen Reflections 15 Arthur Morgan Award 2014 – William Beale 37 The Community Journal – Krista Magaw 16 Our People, Members, and Supporters Community Solutions to Climate Change Fellows and Board 39 – 40 and Peak Oil – Don Hollister 17 Donors 41 Curtailment and Community – Pat Murphy 17 Sponsors 44 Fossil Fuels vs. Community – Megan Bachman 19 Our 63rd Conference – Charting a New Course 45 New Solutions No. 22 Spring, 2016 Edited by Susan Jennings, Don Hollister and John Morgan. Layout by John Morgan Founding Purposes of Community Service, Inc. Articles of Incorporation, 1940 The purposes for which the said corporation is formed books, magazines and other periodical articles, newspa- are as follows: per items, newspaper columns, and bulletins; talks, cor- 1. To study the history, nature and possibilities of small respondence, adult education, vocational guidance, and communities as basic cultural units of society, as the education through educational institutions. major sources of population, and as the most persistent 5. The establishment and operation of a school for com- and pervasive media for the preservation and transmis- munity life. sion of fundamental culture. 6. The encouragement of and participation in research, 2. The development of community interest in the need for demonstrations and experiments in community conscious, deliberate effort to understand, to plan for, development. and to develop, the full possibilities of community life 7. For carrying out these purposes, to receive gifts and in cities, small towns and rural areas. bequests, to borrow money, to purchase, sell, lease, 3. To be a clearing house for the collection and dissemina- mortgage, or otherwise to obtain or to dispose of real tion of knowledge and information concerning possi- and personal property. bilities and achievements of community life. Reincorporated in 2009 as 4. Preparation, publishing, issuing and distribution of Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions Our Work – Susan Jennings Arthur Morgan founded Community Service in November author and social observer; and present-day partners and col- 1940 at the tail end of the Great Depression and 13 months laborators, including Jim Merkel, William Beale, and Peter before Pearl Harbor. The times were as unsettled then as Bane. they are today, when interconnected political, environmental, Sifting through and choosing what to put in this collection and economic crises have made the past that we were born has been a daunting task—nearly everyone associated with into seem innocent and irretrievable. Author of dozens of the organization has been a prolific writer. Though boxes books and pamphlets, President of Antioch College, and first of Community Service-related books and papers have been Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Morgan was an donated to Antioch College and Antioch University Midwest, engineer, a decentralist, a utopian, a pacifist, and a Quaker. In our office shelves are still filled with pamphlets, newslet- addition to being lauded in a eulogy as the greatest American ters, books, and compilations. Our media has evolved from of his time, one biographer called Morgan a ‘pragmatic ideal- mimeographed newsletters and hand-illustrated pamphlets to ist’. In his “Philosophy of Community,” included in this col- YouTube videos, full-length films, and Kindle editions of CS lection, Morgan wrote: publications, yet our message continues to point to the small To a very large degree the failures of our lives are due community as the ‘seedbed of democracy’ and the antidote to globalization. Our recent gathering, Tools for Transition, not so much to the inherent limitations of human nature or nd human mastery of the physical world, as to the poor visions was the 62 conference hosted by Community Solutions, but or patterns of life which we live by. The world today is show- the conversations and presentations would have been famil- ing vast capacity to develop and organize its resources and to iar to our founder. Morgan started the first Yellow Springs indoctrinate peoples with political and social purposes, yet Exchange, an alternative currency, in 1934, and today, the how distorted or primitive are the dreams or patterns of life organization is a founding member of the new Yellow Springs to which these vast efforts are committed. Even among the Exchange. Our global focus likewise spans the decades, allied nations, what a mixture of visions we have—imperial- from Arthur Morgan’s impact on higher education in India, ism, vested privilege, economic ambition, ancient feudalism, through our focus on Cuban community and German build- dictatorship and vestiges of the un-Holy Roman Empire, ing techniques, through to our current film which highlights along with various immature and partial visions of democ- Kerala in India, Cuba, Slovenia and Vietnam. racy, freedom, tolerance and goodwill. The chief limitations We hope that what we’ve chosen to share here offers a of humanity are in its visions, not in power of great achieve- snapshot of the richness of our history, the clarity of our ment in realizing them. vision, and the catalyzing force of community. Today, Community Solutions is moving into our next 75 years as a The twin threads of pragmatism and idealism are woven throughout Community Solutions’ 75-year his- tory, a history of envisioning vibrant futures, and attending to the patterns of life that will get us there. In these pages you’ll meet many pragmatic idealists. In addition to Arthur Morgan, they include Viswanathan, founder of Mitraneketan; Griscom Morgan, originator of the term “inten- tional community;” Jane Morgan who nurtured a far flung network of community builders; Marianne MacQueen, village leader in Yellow Springs; Pat Murphy, whose concern with peak oil and climate change spurred the organization to focus on energy curtailment; Faith Morgan whose films highlight ways of energy transi- tion; Don Hollister, co-founding publisher of Communities magazine; Megan Bachman, writer; Stephanie Mills, bioregional thinker and biogra- pher of Bob Swann, Community Service staffer and community land trust pioneer; Ralph Keyes, Photo by Faith Morgan Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 1 vibrant and purpose-filled organization. You can read about ing human society to exist, if at all, on another plane—of our current work, and about our friends, Board Members, power, skillful design and external controls, on the basis of Fellows, and partners in the final third of this collection. We “enlightened selfishness” rather than of being motivated by a are strengthened by our visions of a future that is healthy for spirit of goodwill, brotherhood and mutual confidence. all who share our planet, while cognizant of the long shadow Yet the time may not be very long. Humanity is in flux. New that humanity now lives within and casts on the broader patterns will emerge. If some of those are inherently sound biotic and planetary community. their support may grow more rapidly than we expect. There In the last chapter of The Community of the Future and are qualities in humanity which crave freedom, dignity, Future of Community, published in 1957, Arthur Morgan good will, absence of suspicion and strategy. People will tend wrote: to congregate where those are in evidence or to support them where they appear. We have a deep foreboding that perhaps the recognition To insure that the spirit of community is not lost is the of the value of community has come too late. Perhaps the adventure on which we are engaged. currents of life that are running against it are so strong that the pattern of community will be entirely washed away, leav- We look forward to sharing this adventure with you. The Philosophy of Community – Arthur E. Morgan There is much wisdom in the saying, “Beware what you rialism, vested privilege, economic ambition, ancient feudal- dream in your youth, for those dreams may be fulfilled dur- ism, dictatorship and vestiges of the un-Holy Roman Empire, ing the years.” To a very large degree the failures of our lives along with various immature and partial visions of democ- are due not so much to the inherent limitations of human racy, freedom, tolerance and goodwill. The chief limitations nature or human mastery of the physical world, as to the poor of humanity are in its visions, not in power of great achieve- visions or patterns of life which we live by. The world today ment in realizing them. is showing vast capacity to develop and organize its resources The same is true as to community. By and large the and to indoctrinate peoples with political and social purposes, American community is a fair expression of the dreams or yet how distorted or primitive are the dreams or patterns of the social philosophy of those who have created it and who life to which these vast efforts are committed.